I need to vent.
I'm going to keep things vague for reasons, but a decision management made today really made me feel like they did it on purpose to make me fail.
So, for my job we have different types of equipment that does the same thing, but each with their own pros and cons with their abilities. Some are as simple as a push of a button, while others are a 20+ specific step process. The easy ones are all exactly the same, while the more involved ones are each different on their setup. So, you have to be trained individually with each of the bigger pieces of equipment due to that.
Now, everyone in my sub-department is required to know how to use each of these pieces of equipment. However, most of us go years without using the bigger ones, either due to it's limits, or that certain people are always assigned them that the rest of us never get the opportunity to keep their knowledge fresh (all but management seems to understand that knowledge can't be retained without repetition).
Now, I haven't used the bigger ones in over three years, and I was trained with a poor foundation to begin with (I complained about it then but other things were more important at the time to do more training, as I was told). So, at this point, I could argue that I'm basically a newbie on using the equipment due to these facts.
Also important to note, none of the bigger pieces have quick guides or even a long form document on how to use it. All training is word of mouth with nothing written down.
These pieces of equipment are used for specific parts of my job that is time based. I must have it up and running at a certain time that I'm told day of. This is important.
During the middle of my day, management decides that I must 'quickly' be train on one of the bigger pieces of equipment, that I must have up and running for use in two hours.
TWO HOURS.
That's how much time one should get in training MINIMUM to be sure you understand how to use it!
Oh, and I wasn't even done with my main assignment for the day either, that's also due in two hours.
My supervisor agreed with me that it was bad timing for training, but management has been pushing him to make sure all of us are ready to use these bigger ones after recent issues with lost knowledge among us (who could have foreseen that?)
Management has been demanding my supervisor to refresh/train us on the bigger equipment but barely giving him the time of day or even taking us off day assignments to have the time.
It's been over three months since they told him to get us all up to speed, and they wanted it completed two months ago. Ha.
Anyways, we do a quick rundown in an hour, (with no time for me to do a quick mock run through) before I have to finish my other assignment, transport the equipment to location, and set it up for my first time.
I bet you can guess by now that I did not get it up and running in time. It wasn't the end of the world situation, but it was incredibly frustrating.
I did send an email to management about my frustrations and feeling like I was setup to fail with this poor planning.
How they'll respond, no idea.
But, I am feeling motivated in being the one to create the quick guides and a long training document/video after this.
Mainly to prove to myself I can not only do it, but that I can train others how to use it as well.